CHENNAI: “I HAVEN'T talked to my family yet, I don't know what's going on at home,” was what Dilip Gavit said on Thursday, a day after he won gold in 100m (T47) at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Stranger still, after plodding a little, Gavit said he did not have a phone. He doesn’t want to get distracted from his game. When he started competing, he ran against able-bodied athletes because para was an alien word. On Wednesday night, as the wet evening settled down peacefully with rain clouds slowly drifting away from the stadium, two Indians stood there in great anticipation for the starting gun. Gavit and Mohammed Basil were touted as the favourites to win gold-silver. But in sports until the finish line, nothing is certain. Gavit touched the tape first.
Conditions were brutal and that affected the gold medallist’s start. He was trailing by the halfway mark and in the last 20m he surged ahead of the pack. Until then, Basil was in the lead. “It was cold and the body took time to warm up,” he told this daily from Glasgow. “I did not want to lose the race.”
Gavit’s story goes beyond the beautiful blue Mondo tracks of the Scotstoun Stadium. It started when he was 11, struggling to even eat two meals a day. His father used to farm during sowing season and worked as a labourer in the off-season. “I have five brothers and life was very difficult,” he said. “Never in my life did I ever think I would be in Glasgow – never, forget about winning a medal.”
Toran Dongri village near Nashik in Maharashtra is a small tribal hamlet of a thousand inhabitants. Life was a daily struggle. Gavit would have been languishing in the hinterland if not for Vaijanath Kale, who picked him up from the village and adopted him as his own. Kale, a former national level quarter-miler who left his corporate job to train athletes – and give them reasons to smile and fly high – spotted him when he went to a school in Surgana village near Toran Dongri. There was lack of medical facility in Toran Dongri that led to amputation of Gavit's arm as a child because of wrong local treatment. “I used to work with the Maharashtra Athletic Association and I met him there,” Kale told this daily from Glasgow. “He was around 12 years old at that time, (and) I didn't have a plan to make him an athlete. I saw a specially-abled child and I wanted to support him so that he can have a normal life.” Kale's trip to Glasgow has been supported by Olympic Gold Quest and Paralympic Committee of India.
Kale knew his ward was struggling in life and found more from Gavit’s teacher. His father was a farmer who grew rice and legumes in the rainy season and worked as a labourer. “I approached his school teacher and told her that I wanted to adopt him If his parents don't have any problem. She told me that they won't have any problem but they won't be able to pay me. I told her that I will manage. I had to convince his mother. She had some doubts. Why was I taking him? He was specially-abled. I had to meet her two-three times.”
Gavit shifted to his coach’s house in around 2012 and has been staying with him ever since. Kale said that he resigned from his job around 2009-10 to open his academy — VDK Sports Foundation where a handful of children, both able bodied and specially-abled, train.
Kale concentrates on the grassroots because he wanted to bring in change in whatever way he could. Though his academy has produced international athletes, he still doesn’t have sponsors.
“I have adopted four more children and I spend money on them. There are about four para-athletes. One of them is visually impaired and she won a national gold. Anjana Bumbadiya has qualified for the para Asian Games. She is a beginner. She will do well in the next two years,” he said.
"When I spotted Gavit, he used to play kho kho. He used to do well against able bodied athletes and as he developed fitness he gained confidence,” said Kale. Gavit then started playing with normal kids and even competed against them. "He won a medal in a relay event. After that I introduced him to para-sport." The new CWG champion had then shown rapid improvement against able bodied athletes in sprints and quarter mile which is his pet event. Since Glasgow did not have one, he competed only in 100m.
Kale’s academy is not just known for Gavit alone. Shravani Sangle, who trains with him, won medals at the recently concluded Asian U23 competition. Now, Gavit has shifted his attention to the Asian Games where he would run in his pet 400m event as well. “I am looking forward to the Games,” he said, adding he has to defend his gold there.